Daddy Let Me Drive

While driving to work this morning, I heard the Alan Jackson song, Daddy Let Me Drive and I had a flash back to the first time I remember driving.

It was a dreary, cold winter day and my dad and I were out checking cows in ol' blue, our  1980 Ford three-quarter ton truck. Ol' Blue was a standard transmission truck that haunted me til right before I was 16, but that's a whole other story! My mom was pregnant with my little brother and she stayed at home that day, while we went to check cows.

(This is not the pasture I was driving in!)

We pulled up to the hay barn and loaded square bales in the back of the truck and headed out to the field to feed the cows. That's when Daddy put me in the driver's seat, stuck ol' blue in granny gear and told me to "Drive Straight". He was going to get in the back of the truck and throw out the hay to the cows as I drove the truck.

Now I was scared of my daddy and did just what he said, so I drove the truck straight across the field. I came to a big water/sink hole in the field and my four year old brain was worried about what to do. Should I go around the hole or drive straight? Hmmmm, but daddy said drive straight and why would he point me in the direction of the sink hole if he didn't want me to drive through the hole? So I drove right into the water hole and when the truck got stuck, Daddy ask me why I did it and all I could say was, "But Daddy, you told me to drive straight!"

Yes, I was 4 years old, the first time I remember driving! Of course he couldn't get on to me, because I was just following his directions. Daddy shouldn't have pointed me in the direction of the sink hole and said drive straight!

We had to walk to our house and we got on our John Deere tractor with my mom and all went back to the pasture and pulled ol' blue out of the water hole.

I will probably remember that day for the rest of my life and took a ride down memory lane this morning, thinking about the time that Daddy let me drive. Truth be told, I think I had driven before this day and drove crooked. I think that was the reasoning for Daddy telling me to drive straight, but I don't remember that day!